St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-03-05
MLMAGE'S SERMON,
q Discourse On Wise Men Who
Play the Fool For a Purpose.
Men Who Allow the Technicalities of Re
hgion to Impede Their Salvation
Wise in Great Things, but Mere Babes
in Relation to Things Eternal

in Relation to Things Eternal
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in recent ser
mon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, dis
coursed on some of the weaknesses OF
mankind, taking for his text:
And he changed his behavior before them
and feigned himself mad in their hands, anG
scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let his
spittle fail down upon his beard.-I. Sam, xxi,
II.
He said: There is one scene in the life OF
David that you may not have pondered
You have seen him with a harp playing
the devil out of Saul; with sling, smash
ing the skull of Goliath; with sword
hacking TO pieces the Philistines; with a
scepter, ruling a vast realm; with psalm
gathering all nations into doxology; but
In my text you have David playing the
fool. He has been anointed King, yet he is
IN exile and passing incognito among the
Gathites. They begin to suspect who he
IS, and say:
Il wonder if this is not the warrior King
Davids 1t looks like him. Is not this the
man about whom they used to make
poetry, and about whom they composed a
dance, so that the maidens Of the city,
feeling now on one foot and now on the
other, used to sing: Saul has slain his
thousands, but David has slain his tens of
thousands Yes, it is very much like
David. 1t must be David. 1t is David"
David, to escape their hands, pretends
to be demented. He said within himself:
IF act crafty, then these people will
not injure me. No one would be so much
OF coward as to assault mailman"
So, one day, while these Gathites are
watching David with increased suspicion,
they see him standing by the door running
his hands meaninglessly up and down the
panels-scrabbling on the door as though
ae would climb up, his mouth wide open
drooling like an infant. I suppose the
boys of tho streets threw missiles at him.
but the sober people of the town said:
This is not fair. Do you not see that
ne has lost his reason? Do not touch this
s1adman. Hands off hands off,
So David escaped; but what an exhibit
ton he made of himself before all the
ages! There was majesty in King
Iear's madness after Regain and Goneril,
his daughters, had persuaded him to
Danish their sister Cordelia, and all the
friends of the drama have been thrilled
with that spectacle. The craziness of
Meg Merrilles was weird and imposing,
aud the most telling passage in Walter
Scott's 'sGuy Mannering." There was
fascination about the insanity of Alex
ander Cruden, who made the best con-
cordance of the Bible that the world ever
saw-made it between the Warehouses.
Some time ago, while I was visiting the
insane asylum on Blackwelps Island,
aemended woman came up to me and said,
in most tragic style:
God moves in mysterious way,
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
But there was nothing grand, nothing
weird, nothing majestic, nothing sublime,
about the stimulation on the part of David
Instead of trusting in the Lord, as he had
on other occasions, he gathers before him
i vast audience of all generations that
were TO come, and standing on that con-
spicuous stage of history, in the presence
of all the ages, he impersonates the slav-
ering idiot.
And he changed his behavior before them,
and feigned himself mad in their hands. and
scrabbled at the door of the gate, and let his
spittle fall upon his beard.
Taking the behavior of David as sug-
gestica, | wish to tell you how many of
the wise, and the brave, and the regal,
play Uuc lOOl huu III Guo uFSt
place remark that those men as badly
play the fool as this man of the text, who,
in any crisis of life, take their cases out
of the hand Of God. David, in this case
acted as though there were no God to lift
him out Of this predicament. What
contrast between his behavior,
when this brave little man stood up in
front of the giant ten feet in height, and
looking into his face said:
Thou contest to me with a sword, and with
spear, and with shield; but come to thee in
the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God OF the |
armies OF Israel, whom thou hast defied. This |
day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, |
and / viii smite thee, and take thine head |
from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the |
hosts OF the Philistines this day unto the fowls
of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth |
that all the earth may know that there is God |
N Israel. |
Between that time and this time, when |
he debased himself and bedraggled his |
manhood, and affected insanity in order |
that he might escape from the grip of the |
Gathites. In the one case he played the |
hero In the other case he played the fool |
So does every man who, in the great crisis |
of life, takes his case out of the hand of |
God. The life of the most insignificant |
man in this house is too vast for any hui |
man management. One time, returning
from the West, very easily got on the |
locomotive while passing over the plains, |
and talked with the engineer; but coming |
on toward the Allegheny Mountains, 1 |
thought would like to sit on the locomo- |
tive as it came down from the mountains !
amidst that most wonderful scenery on |
this continent. l asked the engineer if l
might ride, but he courteously denied me,
for there the grade is SO steep, and so wind |
ing, and so perilous, that he must not have |
any one on the locomotive who may di- |
vert his attention whe- eye and hand and
foot and brain must be concentered, ready |
for the most sudden emergency. Well, |
my friends, life is 50 steep, and SO peril |
GUS, and so exposed to sudden surprises, |
that none but the Lord Almighty can guide
and engineer it, and our disasters come |
f~,,, %ha fo ot that wa want tn GET nm and |